Take Me Or Leave Me
by 6x9is42
Summary: Ron loves Harry. Harry loves Ron. But they are both too afraid to admit it at first. And when Harry starts dating someone else, Ron does whatever he can to get him back.
1. Chapter 1

Ron was running up a flight of stairs toward the Gryffindor Common Room. He had left breakfast early, leaving Harry and Hermione alone in the Great Hall. He gave them the excuse of having to get some books he left in the dorms before classes started in hopes that he could get some alone time.

As Ron reached the portrait of the Fat Lady, he slowed down and ended up walking right past it. He was lost in thought.

'Why did that happen? Why did I feel that way?' Ron asked himself, 'Oh, Merlin, I'm so confused!'

Ron heard someone walking quickly up behind him and hoped that no one was in the hallway with him; he hoped that they were just in a rush. But that person tapped them on the shoulder.

Ron didn't really want to talk to anyone at the moment; he just wanted to think. But when he was tapped on the shoulder again, Ron turned around and glared at the person. When he realized who it was, though, he stopped glaring and apologized.

"Look, er, sorry. I was just thinking," Ron blushed.

"Would you like me to leave you alone then?" Harry asked.

"Oh! No, it's fine. What do you want?" Ron responded.

"Well you kind of just ran off, so I came after you and when you walked past the Common Room, I got worried that something was wrong," Harry told him.

Ron was so lost in thought when he was leaving the Great Hall that he didn't realize that Harry had come after him. "Nothing's wrong," Ron insisted, hoping that that would give Harry the cue to leave. But, to Ron's dismay, Harry didn't leave and kept walking with Ron.

"Are you sure? You've been acting strange lately," Harry replied.

"Oh, that's only because I've been trying to figure out how to tell Hermione something," Ron confessed. That was the truth, too; he had been meaning to tell Hermione a couple things.

"Really? Anything you can tell me?" Harry nudged Ron in the ribs with his elbow.

"Well," Ron began, thinking that he could tell Harry at least one of the things he was going to tell her, "You know about Hermione and I, right?" he asked.

"Of course. How could I not know?" Harry answered. Harry, who had dated Ginny a bit last year, had moved on, and so had Ginny to his knowledge. But that was beside the point; Harry had moved on to someone else. He had known he had feelings for this person since fourth year, but he always tried to think it was just because they were friends. At the end of the last school term, he finally gave into his feelings. Harry had started liking Ron 'in that way', as he would put it, when he realized that the person he would miss most would be him. Ever since the last school term, Harry had tried to show Ron how he felt in many different ways. Harry would bump into him in the hallways and he would watch him in the Quidditch changing rooms. . Not only that, but Harry loved to see how many freckles he could count on Ron's back before Ron would turn around and start talking to him. Ron was just way too dense to figure out what was going on around him.

"Well, I'm trying to figure out a way to say that I don't really like her 'in that way' anymore," Ron said.

"Oh?" Harry was surprised, "Do you like someone else?" he asked.

Ron paused for a moment, "Yea, I think so."

"Any bird I know?" Harry asked. He thought that any girl would be lucky to have Ron fancy them.

"No," Ron replied quickly. 'If only it were a bird,' he thought, 'Why do things have to be so difficult?'

Harry, feeling that the situation was becoming a bit awkward, decided to change the subject. He hated when things became awkward. "We should head to class now, it's about time anyways."

All Ron wanted to say to Harry at that moment was 'I fancy you Harry,' but he just couldn't get the words out.


	2. Chapter 2

A couple days had passed since Ron had run away from the breakfast table. Today was the day that Ron had decided he would talk to Hermione. He found her sitting in the library after the last class of the day.

"Hey Hermione," Ron greeted. He sat down next to her.

"Hi Ron!" Hermione said, happy to see him.

"Look, can we go somewhere else? I need to talk to you," Ron whispered.

"Sure, where did you have in mind?" she asked.

"I was hoping we could go for a walk on the grounds," Ron said.

"Yeah, sure," Hermione replied. She got up from her seat and checked out a couple books from Madam Pince. Hermione caught up to Ron who was waiting for her by the entrance. She grabbed his hand and made her way with Ron to the grounds in silence.

They were silent for a while until they got to the path around the lake. Ron had been thinking of how he wanted to say what he wanted to say and make it nice too. He didn't want Hermione getting upset; he just wanted her to understand what he was going through. And Hermione squeezing his hand every once in a while wasn't helping him concentrate.

"Hermione," Ron started.

"Yea?" she asked.

Ron paused. "I think we need to break up."

Hermione stopped dead in her tracks. She wasn't expecting this. Her mouth became dry and she didn't know what to say. "Oh?" she managed to say.

Ron stopped as well and turned around to face her. He hoped this wouldn't happen. "Yeah. I think it would be best," he replied.

"And why would you think that?" Hermione said defensively.

"Well, I…" Ron started, but he didn't know how to continue without hurting her feelings. "It's just, I think I have feelings for someone else. I guess I just don't feel the same way about you as I did before. I still want to be friends of course, I could never lose you Hermione, but I just don't think we were meant to be together."

Hermione sniffled and then asked, "So who's the new girl you like?" She was hoping it wasn't anyone she had to deal with like Luna.

"That's the other thing I needed to talk to you about. Can we go somewhere more private?" Ron asked.

"More private Ron? No one's going to be listening to our conversation unless they are 10 feet or less away!" Hermione replied. To this, Ron looked around and realized no one was around and that it was probably about dinnertime.

"Alright, fine," Ron said, "But you have to promise me you wont tell them or anyone! And you have to understand that I am having a lot of trouble with it."

"Oh come on Ron!" Hermione yelled. "How can something like this be hard? You either like someone or you don't and they either like you back or they don't! And they'll most likely find out in time, Ron."

She was right, but he would never admit it. "Its hard alright?" he sighed, "Are you promising me these things or not?"

Hermione, annoyed that Ron was making such a big deal out of this, promised that she wouldn't tell a soul who it was.

Ron looked around once more and replied with, "First of all Hermione, if only it were some bird." Ron ignored her gasp, trying to get it out as fast as possible, "I fancy Harry alright?" he said.

"Stop joking with me," was all Hermione could think to say.

"I'm not joking Hermione, this is embarrassing enough as it is!" Ron yelled.

Hermione's jaw dropped but she quickly pulled it back up. "Ron," she said.

"What?" Ron asked miserably.

Hermione clapped her hands together and said, "This is wonderful!"

"This is, what? Wonderful? What do you mean?" Ron asked. He wasn't expecting this.

"Oh, er, nothing. Just ignore me. Look, Ron, just tell Harry how you feel. Its better to just get it out and not keep it bottled up inside." She replied.

Hermione never knew that Ron liked Harry. But she found it a nice surprise considering that Ron had just dumped her. Hermione had known since fifth year that Harry liked Ron. Harry had told her in private one day when Ron was busy with a detention given by Filch for squeaking shoes. She had always hoped that Harry would tell Ron, but knowing Harry, it just wasn't the kind of thing he could do. Ron, who was oblivious to the fact that Harry liked him, still had a little bit of the guts to let Harry know how he felt.

"I'll keep that in mind," Ron sighed.

"Really Ron," Hermione said, "It's important."

"Alright! Alright. I'll do it, just give me some time. Trust me, you'll know once I've done it when you hear Harry screaming bloody murder."

Ron walked off towards the castle for dinner while a broadly grinning Hermione stood behind him, excited for what might happen next.


	3. Chapter 3

A week had gone by and Ron still hadn't told Harry about his feelings yet… and he was soon to find out that he might be too late.

It had been a long day yesterday, and Ron had decided to go to bed early. Harry hadn't come back to the common room after classes that day, giving some random excuse to both Ron and Hermione. He didn't show up for dinner either; nor did he show up for bed that night.

It was morning, and Ron had already woken up, taken a shower, and gotten dressed. He waited by the fireplace for Hermione so they could go to breakfast together… plus he wanted to inform her that Harry hadn't shown up at all last night.

He heard footsteps and down came Hermione, all ready and dressed.

"Hermione," Ron started, "I need to tell you something."

"Is it something bad?" she asked.

"Well, it could be bad, if you think of why," Ron said.

"Just tell me!" Hermione was getting tired of Ron and his beating around the bush lately.

"Harry didn't show up at all last night. He didn't come to bed, or at least I don't think he did, and he wasn't in his bed this morning. The sheets were all made, too," he replied.

Hermione got a worried expression on her face. "Where do you think he could be?" she asked.

"I have no clue, but maybe we should go to breakfast and see if he's already there… or if he appears at all." Ron suggested.

Hermione nodded and they headed out towards the Great Hall.

"I hope he's not hurt," she said more to herself than anyone else.

Ron just looked at her, becoming more and more worried as time went on.

They entered the Great Hall together and looked around the Gryffindor table but they saw no Harry. Ron sighed and led the way to their normal spot near the top of the grand table.

As Ron was about to sit down though, he did a double take. 'Did I just see what I think I saw?' he thought to himself. And indeed he did-he saw Harry, sitting at the Slytherin table, eating with none other than Draco Malfoy. Ron walked grumpily over to him and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Er, Harry?" he said, "What are you doing?"

"Oh, erm, excuse me for a minute guys," Harry turned and stated to the guys at the table. Harry got up and walked Ron out of the Great Hall.

"What are you doing sitting with Malfoy?" Ron shouted.

"Ron," Harry started, looking down at his feet.

"What?" Ron yelled.

"Draco's my boyfriend." Harry finished.


	4. Chapter 4

Ron stood there shocked. He couldn't speak. He couldn't move. Harry was dating Malfoy and now Ron just wanted to run away from him. He didn't know whether to be angry or depressed. Or even surprised that Harry was gay!

"Er, Ron?" Harry stared at Ron. He had been standing there silent with a blank expression on his face for quite a while.

Ron jumped. "Oh," he said, "I have to, er, go. You can go back to… your..." Ron gulped "boyfriend."

Harry eyed him, wondering what was going on. He thought that Ron would be angry at him. Maybe even hit him if he had the chance. 'Maybe he just needs some time,' Harry thought, 'I should leave to let it sink in.' He left Ron standing there staring at his feet to go back and sit with Draco and his friends.

Harry had started dating Draco only a couple days ago and they were already in a serious relationship. He hadn't returned that night because he had spent it with Draco. Nothing happened, though Draco wanted something. Harry couldn't do it though. He still loved Ron, but as he saw it, nothing was going to come out of that because Ron fancied some girl - so Harry was trying his best to move on.

When Hermione, who had watched Harry leave the Great Hall with Ron, saw Harry come back in alone, she got worried. Hermione stood up and left her bowl of cereal at the table. As she made her way out of the Great Hall, she spotted Ron slowly walking towards the staircase back to the common room.

"Ron!" she shouted.

Ron slowly turned around and faced her, waiting for her to catch up.

Hermione hurried over. "What just happened? Why was he sitting with them? Why didn't you come back?"

"Hermione, calm down," Ron replied. He took a deep breath and let the truth come out. "Harry is dating Draco. Which is why he is sitting with him at breakfast. Which is why he didn't come back last night. And I don't want to know what the reason was for that."

Hermione stood there, listening to Ron tell her the bad news. She could tell he was hurting inside, since she knew that he was going to tell Harry his feelings soon. But now this had come up. 'Way to bring up his courage, Harry!' she thought, 'Why would he all of a sudden start going out with Draco?'

"Oh Ron," she said, giving him a big hug, "I know this must be hard, but you have got to keep trying!"

"Keep trying? Why in the world would I keep trying? There's no point anymore. He's got someone now and he doesn't need me. He doesn't _want_ me," Ron stated.

"You need to keep trying," she insisted, "You know now that he fancies men. And whether you like it or not, you are a man, Ron. You still have a chance. You've got to show him you care."

Ron sighed. Hermione was right, as usual. He at least needed to let Harry know that he fancied him. "Fine. I'll think of something to do about it later. Right now I just need to lie down. I'm not hungry anymore."

Hermione was about to protest, telling him he needed to eat, but she decided that this just wasn't the time to do it.

"You go lie down," she said, "I'm going to finish eating."

Hermione headed back to the Great Hall while Ron made his way up to the Gryffindor common room. 'Now just what am I going to do to get Harry to know that I like him?' Ron thought.

Ron walked past a Ravenclaw girl in the hallway and watched as she smiled while reading a note someone had handed her.

And that's when an idea popped into his head.


	5. Chapter 5

_Harry,_

_I don't know what I was thinking waiting all these years to tell you, but I love you. Meet me by the Room of Requirement during dinner tonight._

_Love,_

_Someone you've known a long time_

The next day, Ron left this letter lying on Harry's pillow. He had intended to make it a surprise when Harry came to the hallway the room was located at and saw him, but it was the weekend now so he decided to take a nap.

He dreamt of Harry and him having some strange dinner together in the Room of Requirement, but Draco would walk in on them interrupt their dinner. He was stealing Harry away from him. Again.

Ron tossed and turned in bed. When Harry walked into the room, he didn't wake up. Harry heard Ron whimpering and was about to go wake him up when he spotted the note on his pillow.

Harry read it over twice, his grin growing wider with each word he read. He then turned to Ron who was violently thrashing around in his bed as if he were fighting someone.

"Ron?" Harry said gently. But Ron didn't wake up. So Harry took hold of his shoulder and shook him.

Ron jumped awake to see Harry standing over him with the note in his hand. Ron blushed.

"Ron! Did you see this note on my bed?" Harry asked.

'What does he mean by did I see it? I wrote it!' Ron thought.

When Ron didn't respond, Harry continued, "Look what Draco wrote me!"

Ron's mouth dropped open. His conscience was telling him to speak up. Say whom it really was from. But no words were forming in his mouth.

"Isn't it sweet? He told me he loved me. And that he wants to meet me somewhere tonight," Harry informed Ron, "Oh, I better start getting ready; it's almost time for dinner."

Once Harry left, Ron jumped out of bed, looking at his watch. Harry was right; it was almost dinner. Ron had slept through most of the day.

'But I'm not going to go now! Now that Harry thinks it was Draco! I knew I should have left my name but I was too bloody scared. I need to go find Hermione.'

Ron ran out of the room and down into the common room where he found Hermione doing her homework by the fire.

"Hermione, I did it," Ron said.

Hermione looked up at him and a huge grin came onto her face. She jumped up; letting her book she was studying from fall to the ground. She gave him a big hug, "I'm so proud!"

"No Hermione," Ron said.

"Huh? What do you mean?" she asked.

"I wrote him a letter… telling him to meet me somewhere tonight. But I didn't sign my name, which was a stupid move because now Harry thinks Draco wrote him that note."

Hermione's grin faded. "Oh Ron," she said, giving him a lighter hug, "He'll learn in time. Why don't you come downstairs with me and we can get some dinner."

"No, I'm not hungry," Ron replied truthfully. And it didn't hurt that he didn't want to see Draco sitting in the Great Hall waiting for Harry who wouldn't show up.

"But Ron! You haven't eaten in days!" Hermione protested.

"No thanks, I'm just going to go back to my room and work on some divination or something." Ron ended the conversation by leaving Hermione standing there by the fire alone while he made his way back upstairs.


	6. Chapter 6

Harry had come back that night to find Ron asleep on what appeared to be his divination homework. He grabbed the homework from under him and put it on his bedside table. That's when he spotted what was written on it.

One of Ron's predictions had been _Harry and Malfoy will stay with each other and I will live a miserable life._

Harry realized that he had probably been spending all his time with Draco recently and no time with Ron or Hermione. He thought this was probably what was upsetting Ron.

Draco obviously hadn't shown up by the Room of Requirement that night. Harry gave up after an hour and had headed down to the Great Hall to eat where he found Draco sitting at the Slytherin table. Draco had spotted him and waved over at him. Harry had walked over and kissed him on the cheek. That was his way to say he forgave him for not showing up - even though Draco knew nothing about the note.

Hermione, who had been watching them from behind, made a noise of disgust and walked out of the Great Hall and onto the grounds.

But that was a week ago. Now it was a Hogsmeade weekend and Harry and Ron had only seen each other during classes. Otherwise, Harry was with Draco and Ron was moping around the castle.

Hermione did everything she could to bring his spirits up but nothing worked.

Harry had a date with Draco in Hogsmeade so Ron was going alone with Hermione.

"I still haven't come up with another idea," Ron said as they walked down the path towards Hogsmeade.

"Well maybe I can help out," Hermione replied.

"I need something creative. Something that will really show him how I feel," Ron said.

Hermione walked in silence for a while, thinking. "Well Valentine's day is coming up next week. You could do something for him then," she suggested.

"Hermione! You're brilliant!" Ron exclaimed. He grabbed her hand and led her towards Honeydukes.

He let go of Hermione and walked over to the boxes of chocolates. Hermione slowly followed behind him. "Which one do you think you should get?" she asked him.

"Whichever one I can afford," he replied. Luckily, he had been saving up his money recently so he could at least afford something nice, even if it wouldn't be something as nice as Draco would get Harry.

Ron scanned the shelves. He didn't want the ones with the love potion in them. If he wanted Harry to love him, he at least wanted it to be true. He didn't want the ones that turned your mouth different colors or the ones with nasty fillings. So he settled for a medium sized heart shaped box of a variety of chocolates. They were said on the label to be from the second best chocolate factory in the world. 'What's the first?' Ron asked himself.

He shrugged and grabbed a box off the shelf and walked over to the counter. "That'll be eleven sickles and six knuts," the lady at the counter said.

Ron, without any hesitation, pulled the money out of his pocket and handed it over. "Is this for a nice little witch?" the lady asked.

"Yea, sure," Ron replied rather quickly.

For no extra charge, the lady put a red bow around the box and said, "You're going to make someone very happy this Valentine's day."

"Er, thanks," Ron replied and made his way out of the store with Hermione.


	7. Chapter 7

The day before Valentine's Day, Hermione helped Ron get prepared to give Harry the chocolates, and Ron needed a lot of help. He had no idea what to say. So they sat in the boy's dormitories trying to figure it out.

"How about if you just say it straight out," Hermione suggested.

"How about no," Ron stated.

"Then why don't you just say," Hermione said mocking a man's voice, "'Harry, these are from me.'"

Ron sighed. He'd have to do it somehow so why not that way.

At that moment, Harry walked through the door.

"I'll just leave," Hermione stood up to leave.

"But," Ron started.

"Really Ronald, I have work that needs to get done," She replied.

Ron knew why she was leaving though. She had no intention of doing work; she just wanted to leave the two of them alone. Harry had no clue what was going on.

When Hermione left, Harry sat down on the edge of his bed, staring at Ron. Ron couldn't look at him.

"So, er, do you have anyone special you want to spend Valentine's Day with?" Harry asked.

"Yea, I guess you could say that," Ron said, avoiding Harry's eyes.

"Oh, because, uh, I don't really have any plans and I was wondering if, well, maybe you wanted to just hang out that day," and Harry quickly added, "You know, just as friends and stuff."

"Really?" Ron asked, looking up at Harry. He thought that Harry would have something planned already. "What about Malfoy?"

"Oh, he's not the romantic type," Harry replied.

"But what about all those dates you guys have had?" Ron questioned.

"Those were all my plans," Harry stated.

"Oh," Ron said.

"But anyways, since you already have someone you want to spend it with," Harry started but was cut off by Ron.

"Screw that," Ron said, "I want to hang out with my best mate."


	8. Chapter 8

Ron woke up on Valentine's Day to find Harry already up and out of bed. This gave him time to get ready.

It was noon before Ron even left the dorms. He walked downstairs to find that no one was in the common room. His stomach rumbled so he decided to go get some lunch.

When he got to the Great Hall, he saw Harry sitting across from Hermione, chatting up a storm. Malfoy was nowhere to be seen. As Ron made his way to his two best friends, Harry noticed him and stopped his talking abruptly. Ron ignored this and sat down next to him. They had lunch together like the old times… the times before Harry had started dating Malfoy.

After lunch, Hermione headed off to the library while Ron and Harry made their way back to their dorms.

"You sure you want to spend today with me and not someone else?" Harry asked.

"Of course! We haven't spent a lot of time together lately and I think we need this," Ron said.

Harry smiled. Before Ron had shown up at lunch, Hermione had asked Harry why he was dating Draco if earlier he had told her he fancied Ron. And Harry replied truthfully - he had said that he felt that nothing was going to come out of it so he was forcing himself to move on. What Hermione didn't know was that he hadn't moved on. He couldn't move on.

They spoke the password to the Fat Lady and walked into the common room. They went up the stairs and into the deserted dorms.

Ron walked over to his trunk at the end of his bed and opened it. Harry was paying no attention and was lying on his back on his four-poster bed.

"Harry?" Ron walked over to the edge of Harry's bed.

Harry looked up at Ron, "Yea?"

Ron took the box of chocolates he had taken out of his trunk out from behind his back and handed them to Harry, "This is from…"

"Draco? Oh he shouldn't have! I wasn't expecting anything from him at all!" Harry finished.

Ron stood there stunned. It happened again! And this time he thought it would work for sure! But somehow it had turned right back to Malfoy again.

"Er, yea," Ron said, "From Draco."

"Oh, I should go find him and thank him!" Harry jumped out of bed and made his way out of the dorms.

"…but what about our day together?" Ron said gloomily after him, but Harry was already too far away to hear him.


	9. Chapter 9

Ron had pretty much given up on Harry since Valentine's Day, and Hermione was _not_ going to have any of that. She decided that she needed to have a talk with both her boys separately. Harry was first.

She had finally gotten Harry alone after Transfiguration class one day and pulled him inside an empty classroom.

"We need to talk," Hermione announced.

"About what?" Harry was confused. What was so important that she couldn't say it in front of other people?

"You. What do you think you are doing!" She nearly yelled.

"What do you mean?" Harry was still quite confused.

"Oh, come on Harry! You and Malfoy? What happened to you and Ron?" Hermione was frustrated. Harry had told her about him fancying Ron and she was quite certain he still felt the same way as he had when he told her this months and months ago.

Harry got angry with her for bringing this up. It was a touchy subject for him and he didn't want to talk about it. "There was never anything between Ron and me. Just friendship. Yes, I did fancy him at one point, but seeing as how he has an eye on some bird, I had to get over it somehow. So Mal – I mean Draco was my escape. There. Does that make you feel better now that you know?"

"You still love him don't you?" Hermione said gently.

Harry sat there stunned. Yes, he still loved Ron. He always had, but Harry would rather see Ron happy than scare the bloody crap out of him by saying that he loved Ron.

"Maybe it's just better the way it is now. I won't lose my friendship with him." Harry avoided Hermione's question.

"You've already lost it Harry," she said rather harshly. She stormed out of the classroom, leaving a stunned Harry behind.

Ron, meanwhile, had been looking for Hermione, who had said that she wanted to speak to him. He found her walking down the hall looking grumpy.

"Hermione!" he shouted as he ran toward her, "What's wrong?"

Hermione looked up when her name was called and tried her best to look perfectly normal. "Absolutely nothing Ron, just, er, thinking about our Transfiguration assignment."

Ron looked at her and then shrugged it off. "You said you wanted to speak to me?"

"Oh, yes, that's right. Would you like to do it back in the common room before the next class starts?" Hermione asked.

"Sure," Ron said, starting his way towards the Gryffindor Common Room.

They walked in silence as Hermione tried to figure out what she wanted to say to Ron. When the got to the Fat Lady, they both said the password and walked in. Hermione made her way towards Ron's dorm.

Once inside the dorm, Hermione sat on Ron's bed as she had many times before and she sighed.

"Something is wrong Hermione," Ron stated.

Hermione sighed once more. "You have got to keep trying Ron," she said, "Promise me you'll keep trying to win Harry over."

"What? Why? He obviously likes someone else. Why should I keep trying when nothing good is going to come out of it?" Ron protested.

"I just have this feeling that he's unhappy with Malfoy. Just trust me Ron, please keep trying." Hermione begged.

Ron sighed, "Fine, but you're going to have to help me figure out something to do."

"That's simple. Give him something you treasure," Hermione said.


	10. Chapter 10

Ron had learned his lesson and this time, his name was going on the package he planned to get Harry. Ron knew the exact thing he would give Harry too.

Back in the summer before their fourth year at Hogwarts, Harry and Ron's family had gone to the Quidditch World Cup together. He knew Harry really enjoyed himself because he was surrounded by everything Quidditch.

They had gotten their picture taken together by Hermione right before the game started. It was a picture of Harry and Ron, arms around each other's shoulders, face paint and all. Occasionally, Harry would turn around in the picture to see if the game started or Ron would make a hand gesture at the person looking at the picture.

Ron had saved this picture for many reasons. Mainly he kept it because it was him and his best mate. But now his best mate meant more than it did before.

Ron took the time to write a note to Harry on the back of the picture and wrapped it up with the words:

"To: Harry

From: RON"

He made sure his name was in big letters for Harry to see. Ron wasn't going to let him get confused in any way this time.

After finishing the present, Ron left his dorm to go find Hermione. She wasn't in the common room and it wasn't a meal time, so the only other likely place to look was the library.

And of course, Ron was right with his assumption and found Hermione with her face buried in a book on dragons.

"Hermione?" Ron was trying to get her attention.

"Yes Ron?" She replied.

Ron took the present he had behind his back and showed it to Hermione, hoping to get her approval before giving it to Harry.

"You did a nice job wrapping it and I congratulate you on writing your name on it as well. But what's inside?" Hermione questioned.

"Remember back at the Quidditch cup, you took a picture of Harry and I before the game started?"

"Yea?" Hermione remembered that the two boys were so excited for the game.

"Well, I put it in a frame and that's what I'm giving him."

"Oh Ronald," Hermione stood up with tears in her eyes, "That's perfect! He definitely will love it!" She gave him a huge hug, not caring that people around them were staring and Madame Pince was shushing them.

"Er, thanks Hermione," Ron tried to say but it was muffled by Hermione's hair, "I think I'll go try to find him now."

"Good luck Ron!" Hermione called out after him. Madame Pince was glaring at Hermione, so Hermione slowly sat back down, realizing how much noise they made.


End file.
